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· Pacific Gas
and Electric Company was issued 28 new charges July 29 and face proposed fines
exceeding $3 billion in connection to the 2010 San Bruno, California pipeline
explosion that killed 8 people and caused extensive damage to a neighborhood. –
Associated Press

1.
July 30, Associated Press –
(California) PG&E charged with obstruction of justice over deadly 2010
gas pipeline explosion. A federal grand jury issued new charges against
Pacific Gas and Electric Company July 29 that included an obstruction of
justice charge and 27 others for lying to federal investigators in connection
to the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion that killed 8 people and caused
extensive damage to a neighborhood. The company faces more than $3 billion in
total fines. Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/07/30/pge-charged-with-obstruction-justice-over-deadly-2010-gas-pipeline-explosion/

· Lloyds Banking
Group agreed to pay $370 million in fines to U.S. and U.K. authorities to
settle an investigation into the group’s role in manipulating the London
interbank offered rate (LIBOR). – ReutersSee item 6 below in the Financial Services Sector

· A physician
assistant and a certified nursing assistant both licensed in Florida were
convicted July 28 for participating in a Medicare fraud scheme that totaled
approximately $200 million in fraudulent billings by American Therapeutic
Corporation. – U.S Department of Justice

18. July 28, U.S. Department of
Justice – (Florida) Physician assistant
and certified nursing assistant convicted in $200 million Medicare fraud
scheme. A physician assistant and a certified nursing assistant both
licensed in Florida were convicted by a federal jury July 28 for participating
in a Medicare fraud scheme that totaled approximately $200 million in fraudulent
billings by American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC). The two individuals, along
with co-conspirators took part in the scheme that stretched across seven ATC
locations by submitting false claims to Medicare seeking reimbursement for
mental health services that were not provided or were provided to ineligible
patients. Source: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/July/14-crm-791.html

· Six facilities
on the University of California, Los Angeles campus were damaged after a
30-inch water pipe burst July 29 spilling 8 million gallons of water onto the
roadway causing flooding and stranding at least 5 people. – Associated Press

19.
July 30, Associated Press –
(California) UCLA wades through damages from pipe flooding. Six
facilities on the University of California, Los Angeles campus were damaged
after a 30-inch water pipe burst July 29 spilling 8 million gallons of water
onto the roadway causing flooding and stranding at least 5 people. Utility
crews reported July 30 that repairing the pipe could take several days. Source:
http://news.msn.com/us/broken-water-main-floods-ucla-5-people-rescued

Financial Services Sector

4. July
29, KXAN 36 Austin – (Texas) Credit card skimming ring stretched
from Sunset Valley to Round Rock. Police in Travis County arrested a woman
July 25 on fraud charges for allegedly using a payment card skimmer to collect
customers’ card data from the Chipotle restaurant where she worked in Sunset
Valley. A skimmer found in her possession contained 527 card numbers and police
alleged that she was selling the numbers to a man arrested in April on similar
charges. Source: http://kxan.com/2014/07/29/credit-card-skimming-ring-stretched-from-sunset-valley-to-round-rock/

6. July
28, Reuters – (International) Lloyds Banking Group to pay $370
million Libor rigging fines. British financial institution Lloyds Banking
Group agreed to pay $370 million in fines to U.S. and U.K. authorities to
settle an investigation into the group’s role in manipulating the London
interbank offered rate (LIBOR). Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101860773

24. July 30, Securityweek – (International) Tor warns of attack attempting to
deanonymize users. The Tor Project reported that an attack that could have
broken users’ anonymity on the Tor network was detected July 4 and may have
been part of a research project. The attack used a combination of a Sybil
attack and a traffic confirmation attack, and the vulnerabilities exploited
were closed in a patch issued July 30. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/tor-warns-attack-attempting-deanonymize-users

26. July 30, Threatpost – (International) Trio of flaws fixed in Facebook
Android app. Facebook issued an update for its Android app that closes a
vulnerability where an HTTP server used for video playback would accept
requests from any client, leading to the potential for attacks to cause a
denial of service (DoS) condition or transfer large amounts of data to run up
charges on a victim’s mobile bill. Source: http://threatpost.com/trio-of-flaws-fixed-in-facebook-android-app

27. July 29, Securityweek – (International) Many antivirus engines plagued by
vulnerabilities: Researcher. A researcher with Coseinc presenting at the
SyScan 360 conference reported that 14 of 17 antivirus products tested
contained at least one vulnerability due to a variety of factors. Some
vulnerabilities have since been patched, while the researcher reported that
others remain exploitable. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/many-antivirus-engines-plagued-vulnerabilities-researcher

29. July 29, Softpedia – (International) Instagram account hijack code
published. A developer released a proof-of-concept that exploits the lack
of HTTPS encryption in certain functions of the Instagram app for iOS that
could allow an attacker on the same network to intercept session cookies and
use them to take over Instagram accounts. Instagram parent company Facebook
stated that they are aware of the issue and are working to find a solution.
Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Instagram-Account-Hijack-Code-Published-452658.shtml

31. July 29, Stroudsburg Pocono Record
– (Pennsylvania) Crews work to
restore Internet, cable after fire at Luna Rossa Cafe. Crews worked to
repair by July 30 a damaged fiber optic cable in Gilbert after Internet service
for PennTeleData customers and phone and cable service to Blue Ridge Cable and
Palmerton Telephone customers was knocked out when a fire broke out at the Luna
Rossa Cafe July 27 damaging the cable. Source: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140729/NEWS/140729810/-1/news

· One
subcontractor was killed and three others were injured July 28 when the top
blew off a fish oil storage tank under repair at the Omega Protein fish
processing facility in Moss Point, Mississippi, prompting a 2-day closure of
the plant. – Jackson Clarion-Ledger

· Seven East Bay,
California communities and the East Bay Municipal Utility District reached an
agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency July 28 to pay $1.5
million in fines for past sewage discharges into the San Francisco Bay. – U.S.
Department of Justice

16.
July 28, U.S. Department of Justice –
(California) Historic clean water act settlement will prevent millions of
gallons of sewage discharges into San Francisco Bay. Seven East Bay
communities and the East Bay Municipal Utility District reached an agreement
with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency July 28 to pay $1.5 million in
fines for past sewage discharges into the San Francisco Bay. The district and
the communities will also upgrade their 1,500 mile-long sewer system over a
21-year period in order to help eliminate millions of gallons of sewage
overflows. Source: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/July/14-enrd-790.html

· Data was
stolen from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
contractor’s personal computer in 2013, which allowed a hacker to extract data
from NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service system
through a remote connection. – Nextgov

23.
July 28, Nextgov – (National) Hacker
breached NOAA satellite data from contractor’s PC. A report released by the
Office of the Inspector General found that satellite data was stolen from a
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contractor’s personal
computer in 2013, which allowed a hacker to extract data from NOAA’s National
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service system through a remote
connection. The report found the administration had several security
deficiencies and security bugs in its satellite software that remained unfixed,
among other findings. Source: http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2014/07/hacker-breached-noaa-satellite-data-contractors-pc/89771/

· Police are
searching for two suspects connected to a July 28 shooting in the parking lot
of the Northwoods Mall in North Charleston, South Carolina, which prompted the
mall to go on lockdown for about 5 hours and injured one person. – WCSC 5
Charleston

25. July 29, The Register – (International) Only ‘3% of web servers in tops corps’
fully fixed after Heartbleed snafu. A study by Venafi Labs found that only
3 percent of machines have been fully protected against the Heartbleed Open SSL
vulnerability which includes patching servers and changing private keys, as
well as being issued with new SSL certificates and having the old ones revoked.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/29/only_3_of_top_firms_fully_patched_against_heartbleed_flaw/

26. July 28, Securityweek – (International) Cybercriminals abuse Amazon cloud to
host Linux DDoS Trojans. Kaspersky Lab reported that Amazon cloud services
and other companies are being abused by cybercriminals to host distributed
denial of service (DDoS) bots, including a sophisticated Linux trojan capable
of conducting domain name system (DNS) amplification DDoS attacks. The
attackers are able to access the servers by exploiting vulnerabilities in
versions 1.1.x of Elasticsearch. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/cybercriminals-abuse-amazon-cloud-host-linux-ddos-trojans

27. July 28, Securityweek – (International) Kaspersky analyzes distribution
network for Koler mobile ransomware. Kaspersky Lab published findings on
the Koler ransomware which targets Android and Internet Explorer users stating
that dozens of automatically generated sites redirect traffic to a central hub
using a traffic distribution system where users are again redirected. The
distribution infrastructure relies on a network of at least 48 malicious adult
Web sites linked to Keitaro traffic redirection system. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/kaspersky-analyzes-distribution-network-koler-mobile-ransomware

28. July 28, Softpedia – (International) I2P networking tool patched against
de-anonymization. Developers of the I2P network released the 0.9.14 patch
which integrates repairs for cross-site-scripting (XSS) and remote execution
vulnerabilities addressing flawed components in Tails operating system enabling
de-anonymization of a client. The release contains several bug fixes in
i2ptunnel, i2psnark, and other updates. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/I2P-Networking-Tool-Patched-Against-De-Anonymization-452464.shtml

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About Me

U.S. Army Retired Chief Warrant Officer with more than 40 years in information technology and 35 years in information security. Became a Certified Information Systems Security Professional in 1995 and have taught computer security in Asia, Canada and the United States. Wrote a computer security column for 5 years in the 1980s titled "for the Sake Of Security", penname R. E. (Bob) Johnston, which was published in Computer Decisions.
Motto: "When entrusted to process, you are obligated to safeguard"